During the period May 31st - June 1st, STAR-STAR organized two-day training on HIV, Human Rights and Sex Work Activism with support of ICRSE-The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe. The training took place in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia and 16 sex workers attended the training.

International Sex Worker Day (2nd June) is the memorable day since 1975, when more than 100 people working in the sex industry occupied the church of Saint-Nizier in Lyon to point to discrimination and violations of their rights.

June 2 is the International Sex Workers’ Day. On this day in 1975 about 100 sex workers and their supporters occupied Saint-Nizier Church in Lyon, France, protesting against their criminalised and exploitative working conditions, discrimination and abuse by law enforcement.

The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day has been held annually every third Sunday in May since 1983. On May 17, 2015 around 1200 organizations in 115 countries gathered to commemorate those who died from AIDS and to raise awareness about HIV. The official theme of the campaign worldwide was ‘Supporting the future’ dedicated to calling on the communities around the world to unite and demand a sustainable response to AIDS.

How would you react if you find out that a woman, who you know, earned money by providing sexual services? Would you discard her or would you accept her voluntary choice of profession? Comedian Evelyn, who decided to support campaign of civic association Odyseus about violence against women working in the sex industry, also asked herself this question.

Sex workers, sex workers’ rights activists, groups and allies celebrated May 1 with various actions. SWAN members also joined the celebration, you can read more about actions that took place in Turkey, BiH, Bulgaria and Macedonia on May 1, 2015 below.